English Attack Massacred By Tallon and Lindwall

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26353, 7 January 1947, Page 5

English Attack Massacred By Tallon and Lindwall

(By Neville Cardus, Special Correspondent) . > , (Rec. 0.30 a.m.) MELBOURNE, Jan. 6. England’s second innings has begun so confidently and prosperously that if to-morrow a score of 350 or thereabouts is made some pretty irony will be tasted as we recollect that when McCool was out to-day the match was by no means Australia's. Only three not exactly masterful batsmen were left to hold the remaining wickets. . > • • The English attack in this critical period did not need even to be patiently mastered; incredibly it went to pieces, or ..let us say to rags and tatters before an offensive conducted by a 'fast bowler and a stumper.

The match was resumed at noon in a rain shower, and a bleak wind blowing as unpleasantly as any that swept a North of England cricket field in midsummer. The majestic pavilion was padded with waistcoats, and, _ by the way, padlocked with watch chains. As I contemplated the gloomy heaven and felt the chill of the air and caught a sight of George Duckworth I became extremely homesick, Two policies were open to England—either to bowl to save runs, and, as cricketers say, “ stitch up the game,” or to take risks with the attack and seek to bring the Australian innings quickly to an end. It was not easy to deduce from observation which of these plans was being enforced. Wright did not come into action at all until a-quarter of an hour before the interval. Edrich Erratic After Edrich had opened erratically, Voce took his place and was steady if not dangerous for a few overs, and now with Bedser tolerably steady and occasionally more than thta, only a few runs were scored in half an hour. Then Edrich was called back by which time Bedser had worked hard for an hour and Yardley did not bowl at all until 2.20, presumably for some reason. Bedser enjoyed excellent overs, but even he maintained no consistency of length or tactics. McCool when he is seeking runs, should be pinned down by a good length near his off stump. He was allowed to exploit his favourite on-side strokes too frequently. When he was caught at the wicket, seventh out at 341. Tallon made quick and 5 easy runs from Edrich and the tiring Bedser. who was kept on until lunch compelled him into rest and surcease. Australia was leading by 356 at the fall of the seventh wicket; there was yet a chance for England. Imabine the Australians at such a position: Invisible and electricallycharged barbed wire would have connected fieldsmen with fieldsmen; every run would have been made only by grim sweat of the brow. Yardley was taken off after one over; true, he was hit for 12 in it. but a policy that is reversed after one abnormal event is no policy at all. Tallon and Lindwall made at this crucial moment a massacre of the bowling; they helped themselves to 154 with no fewer than 110 smitten all over the field in less than an hour after lunch. Tallon played to the occasion with all the relentless opportunism of an

Australian, and Lindwall, nearly caught at the wicket as soon as he came in, emerged from a palpable error and mortality. It was the anti-climax to lovers of the unsparing sport; it was a Harlequinade, and the red hot poker and clowns and sausages might have appeared at any minute. Such a bursting of the bladder of England’s chance would never have been permitted if Yorkshire had been standing for England; they might have lost grip, but' only after a terrible martyrdom leaving them flat on the mat. This, of course, is not to belittle Tallon’s grand innings and Lindwall’s splendid quickness to jump to and size up the proceedings and the opposition’s psychological as well as technical limitations. This Australian team palpitates with young and very red corpuscles. It was ever thus: Let that thought be Hamond’s consolation. The crowd naturally went wild as the demolition staff got to work; To refer to my nautical metaphors of the other day, the back of the English ship was utterly broken and the bridge swept away. Lindwall's century, achieved by a smashing straight drive from the hard working and perpetual motion of Bedser, provoked a frenzy of enthusiasm. Australia scored 151 runs in 80 minutes between 2.15 and 3.35. and Bradman had no need to cogitate about a judicious declaration: He had too little reason to cogitate at all. The English bowlers, during the onslaught of the Australian batsmen, omitted to hit the batsmen’s pads and te£t the umpires’ skill and impartiality as administrators of the leg-before- - wicket law. f “Amazing Wicket” The swift and belligerent scoring * lighted the field and brought forth the sun, so that the scene was quite cheerful when Hutton and Washbrook began England’s second innings. This amazing Melbourne .wicket still declined to take spin except slowly and almost harmlessly, and Washbrook at last showed his true form and strokes in spite of once playing a forward and missing a fine offside ball from Lindwall and in spite also of an error of judgment against Dooland when he was in the forties. He hit strongly to square leg; altogether he was himself, easy and more or less uninhibited. With Hutton serenely certain, no major disaster occurred, but there were sounds of protest from optimists in the crowd at the slow scoring.